1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to wireless communication systems, such as those including integrated backhaul.
2. Related Art
Wireless communication systems include sending information between a sender and a receiver using a wireless communication link. In wireless communication, the sender modulates information onto a wireless communication channel (such as a frequency band reserved for wireless communication between the sender and the receiver), and the receiver demodulates that information from the wireless communication channel (so as to recover the original information). Known wireless communication systems often use a cell structure, in which within each cell a BSC (base station controller) communicate with CPE (customer premises equipment). This provides the features that (a) communication can independently be controlled within each cell, and (b) wireless communication resources, such as frequencies, can be used in multiple cells when those cells are sufficiently distant to prevent substantial interference.
One problem with known systems is the need to provide integrated backhaul connectivity between the wireless communication system and a non-wireless communication system. For example, such non-wireless communication systems might include a wire line or fiber communication system including routers and the Internet. Such backhaul connectivity might should advantageously include inter-cell communication, as well as communication between selected cells (more specifically, the base station controllers in selected cells) and the non-wireless communication system. However, attempts to integrate backhaul connectivity with known systems would suffer from similar draw-backs to those that are common to internal communication within wireless communication systems; these would include drawbacks described in the Incorporated Disclosures (see “Related Applications” below).
More specifically, the physical characteristics of the communication link between a first cell and a second cell can change substantially over relatively short periods of time, even though the physical location of the base station controllers for those cells is not substantially altered. This is particularly so for interference, such as co-channel interference (CCI), and for multipath effects, such as reflections resulting in intrasymbol interference, intersymbol interference, and fading. There are multiple such characteristics of the communication link, each of which can change over time independently of each other. As a result, selection of a single set of such physical characteristics, even when physical conditions of the lines of sight between the first cell and the second cell are known, can result in relatively ineffective or inefficient communication between cells.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a technique for wireless communication including an integrated backhaul capability that is not subject to drawbacks of the known art. For one example, it would be advantageous to provide an adaptive point to point, or point to point-to-point, connection between selected cells of a wireless commutation system and selected elements of a non-wireless communication system. For a second example, it would be advantageous to provide an adaptive point-to-point, or point to point-to-point, connection among multiple cells in a wireless communication system.